1. Field of Invention
The present invention is related to a method and apparatus for culturing bean sprouts in water to facilitate the production and management of mature bean sprouts as well as to keep bean sprouts from spoiling by putting beans in culturing net bags, immersing them in water, injecting air into the water, sprouting beans, and culturing bean sprouts.
2. Prior Art
Bean sprouts can be cultivated regardless of location and season for a short time because beans can be sprouted with just water in 5–6 days in a dark place until their roots are approximately 10 cm long. They generate vitamin C, pantothenic acids, asparagine acids, and all kinds of amino acids while growing from seeds to sprouts, and for that reason they have high nutritional value.
Recently mass production of bean sprouts has been developed. These methods consist of placing beans in a container and sprinkling with water at regular intervals. However, bean sprouts are typically growing in circumstances of high temperature and humidity, darkness, and poor ventilation. It is a problem that the bean sprouts are spoiled by microorganism infection. Pseudomonas spp. and Fusarium spp. are known as putrefying bacteria of bean sprouts. These infecting microorganisms reproduce quickly and cause spoiling in cases where temperature of the growing room gets high. To prevent spoiling, mixing of sprouts while sprinkling water with or without chemicals on the beans has been tried. Mechanical mixing, however, causes bean sprouts to grow slowly. In addition, using chemicals is harmful to people.
In addition, in prior art, beans are cultivated in a container and transferred to a packaging container. The procedures of producing and transferring cultivated bean sprouts not only are very complicated but also cause damage to bean sprouts.